Paying tribute to all those who have worked for Triple Eight since it was founded in 2003, Dane claimed it “the best and most successful professional race team in Australian motorsport history.”
It’s a statement that’s in many ways hard to argue with.
Triple Eight has been the Supercars benchmark for much of the past 20 years, achieving great success across a variety of rule sets, marques, cars and drivers.
Its achievements overwhelm the record books. Ten Bathurst 1000 wins, 11 Supercars drivers’ championships and 12 Supercars teams’ titles are the most for any team in history.
Under Dane’s leadership, Triple Eight rose from struggling newcomers to a titan of the industry, supplying cars and parts to rivals as part of an extensive customer business.
Triple Eight has spread its wings and found more success in categories including GT3 and Super2 while also expanding its engineering prowess beyond motor racing.
But is Triple Eight the best team in Australian motorsport history? A handful of others could also lay claim to that mantle based on their success and influence on the industry.
Consider the cases below – each fellow Australian touring car teams from the ‘professional era’ of sponsorship – and let us know your thoughts on this week’s Pirtek Poll.
Holden Racing Team/WAU
8 Bathurst 1000 wins, 6 drivers’ titles
The team now known as Walkinshaw Andretti United flew the flag for Holden as its factory racing outfit from 1989 to 2016, currently runs Fords and will usher Toyota into the category in 2026.
HRT dominated the V8 racing scene during a tremendous period of growth in the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s, with hero drivers including Peter Brock, Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife.
During its heyday the HRT set the pace on and off the track – its connectivity into Holden Special Vehicles and Holden a world-standard in utilising motorsport to market road cars.
Holden Dealer Team
9 Bathurst 500/1000 wins, 4 drivers’ titles
The original Holden ‘factory’ team was conceived under the Dealer Team banner in the late 1960s to circumvent General Motors’ global ban on direct racing involvement.
HDT is forever synonymous with Brock, who drove a succession of Toranas and Commodores to eight wins in the Great Race (including the 1987 event under the Mobil Dealer Team banner).
Home to other legendary names including Colin Bond, Jim Richards and Larry Perkins, the HDT also featured in Sports Sedan and rally competition during its halcyon years.
Dick Johnson Racing
4 Bathurst 1000 wins, 10 drivers’ titles
Australia’s most enduring professional race team has ridden waves of success and turmoil across more than 40 years.
The team was built from the legend of Johnson and his own heroic feats behind the wheel, which included winning the first five of DJR’s 10 ATCC/Supercars drivers titles.
DJR has stayed loyal to Ford throughout, providing the Blue Oval a much-needed presence during various eras, including against the might of Triple Eight.
Perkins Engineering
3 Bathurst 1000 wins
Formed by Perkins in the years after leaving his role as workshop manager and co-driver at HDT, Perkins Engineering left a multi-faced mark on Australian motorsport.
The ‘Prince of the Privateers’ not only beat the more fancied squads to three Bathurst 1000 wins during the 1990s, Perkins’ customer-focused business helped get many others to the grid.
PE largely pioneered the customer car and parts model later picked up by Triple Eight, in many cases allowing non-professionals to compete in the top league during the V8 era’s growth period.
Gibson Motorsport
3 Bathurst 1000 wins, 4 drivers’ titles
Borne out of Nissan’s Howard Marsden-managed Australian touring car efforts of the early 1980s, Fred Gibson’s team took the Japanese marque to the top during the Group A era.
GMS set new standards for both performance and team presentation as its Skylines dominated in the early 1990s, before further proving its mettle with Commodores following the move to V8 rules.
Falling on hard times after the banning of cigarette sponsorship at the end of 1995, the team finally took a Bathurst win for Holden in 1999 before fronting Ford’s signing of Craig Lowndes in 2001.
Allan Moffat Racing
1 Bathurst win, 4 drivers’ titles
Kept Ford at the forefront of Australian motorsport in the 1970s following the Blue Oval’s factory withdrawal and operated by Moffat with typical professionalism and attention to detail.
Scored three championship wins and a famous 1-2 Bathurst victory in the 1970s before Moffat engineered a switch to Mazda that shook up the touring car scene and delivered a final title.
Moffat’s corporate nous was again on display in the late 1980s when he convinced ANZ to bankroll his Sierra efforts, in an era where such blue-chip sponsorships remained rare outside of tobacco.
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